Our students have made some really impressive works of art this year! Check out the pictures and read the associated descriptions below to learn more.

1st Grade

Kindness Quilt Squares

First grade students used rulers to measure off borders on each edge of their paper squares, used crayons to decorate the borders with different types of line designs, then painted over their designs with watercolors. In the middle of their squares, they each drew a picture of someone doing something kind. Finally, on the back of their squares they wrote brief artist statements telling about their pictures.

1st Grade

Neat Streets – Build & Draw Architecture

First grade students observed some unique buildings by architects Antoni Gaudi and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We read a story about a neighborhood where the houses are transformed to represent the personality and interests of each resident. Then the students used wooden blocks to construct houses, and drew the structures they had built. Finally, they added details and colored their neat streets.

1st Grade

African Ceremonial Necklaces

First grade students learned about the Maasai people who live by the Serengeti Plains in Africa. Then they decorated a paper plate in the style of traditional Maasai beaded necklaces. Finally, they listened to Maasai music and learned dance moves while wearing their jewelry.

1st Grade

Painting Shapes and Tints

First grade students learned that mixing white with a bright, pure color makes a lighter, softer color called a “tint.” Then they practiced their painting skills by painting concentric shapes in a variety of different tints, filling their papers with the beautiful colors they mixed.

1st Grade

Dancing Giraffes

First grade students heard a silly song about a giraffe named Gerald who thinks he can’t dance, until he finds his own style and discovers that he can dance after all! Then they drew giraffes doing all sorts of silly dance moves. After they colored and cut out their giraffes, they practiced their painting skills and made moonlit grassland scenes on which to mount their giraffes.

2nd Grade

Name Symmetry Creatures

Second grade students learned that bilateral symmetry means that each half of something looks just like the mirror-image reflection of the other half. They made symmetrical organic shapes by folding their papers in half, writing their names on the fold line, and cutting around the letters. Then they used their imagination to examine the shapes and decide how to turn them into creatures.

2nd Grade

Winter Portraits with Radial Stamp Printing

Second grade students learned portrait proportions, and practiced drawing all the parts of the face in the right places, and drawing different expressions and hairstyles. They decorated sweaters for their portraits by pressing items with interesting shapes and textures into paint, then stamping them onto paper to make radial patterns. Then they cut out matching boots, mittens, and hats, and decorated them with repeating patterns to dress up their portraits. Finally, they discussed Habit #5, Seek First to Understand, and wrote about the idiom, “put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

3rd Grade

Sonoran Desert Animals

Third grade students learned about the Sonoran desert ecosystem. They smelled creosote leaves, tasted prickly pear cactus fruit jelly, examined barrel cactus hooks and cholla ribs, and learned how to draw several species of cacti. They learned about some adaptations that enable plants and animals to survive in an arid desert environment, then they each chose a desert animal and created a work of art showing that creature in its habitat.

3rd Grade

Tropical Fish in Oil Pastel

Third grade students learned about the coral reef ecosystem and examined an assortment of shells, sea sponges, and different types of corals. They carefully observed a reference photo of a tropical fish and tried to accurately draw all of the shapes and textures they could see, making their fish as large as they could fit on their paper. Next, blending oil pastels, they colored the fish to contribute to our collaborative mural. As a background for their fish, they drew a reef environment including visual textures of diverse marine organisms, and overlapping elements to show depth.

4th Grade

Skateboard Deck Designs

Fourth grade students explored the work of skateboard designers. They practiced folding and cutting to produce symmetrical designs. Then they experimented with contrasting color schemes and balancing positive and negative space to create interesting layered designs that could be stencil-painted onto a skateboard deck.

5th Grade

Cube Illusion Tessellation

Fifth grade students learned that a tessellation is a pattern of shapes that fit together perfectly with no overlap or gaps. They also observed how contrasts of light and dark create the illusion of depth. They used rulers to draw a hexagon within a hexagon. Using three contrasting values, they colored opposite sides of the small and large hexagon to match. Finally, all of the individual cubes were assembled together to form a larger collaborative tessellation.

Next week, March 27th-31st is Staff Appreciation week! Our amazing PTA has put together ideas of ways you and your kids can show the teachers and staff just how much they are appreciated. Here's a link to survey responses from the teachers if you want to know their favorite gifts to receive: https://goo.gl/Iko4Ae

Thanks to our great Title 1 technicians, 3rd-6th grade students are participating their very own March Madness competition, but this time, it's all about math facts! Each student competes to recite math facts quickly and accurately. We're already down to the Elite Eight, and the finalists will get to compete against Mr. Duncan next week.

The Living Planet Aquarium came to present to Cherry Creek's fourth grade students last week. Students enjoyed this hands-on activity and learned more about the water cycle and how it affects land, water supplies, and animal life.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Please bring your child with you to registration so they can be given a brief assessment. This will help us balance our classes and have teacher assignments ready by August 1st. Thanks!

Cherry Creek Parents,

Enrollment for next year’s kindergarten will take place at Cherry Creek Elementary in the Collaboration Center on Thursday, March 16, 2017 from 8:00 a.m.– 4:00 p.m. Please follow the arrows after entering the front doors of the school.

All children who will be 5 years old by September 1, 2017 are eligible to attend kindergarten for the 2017-2018 school year.

Parents should bring proof of residency if your family is new to our school, a birth certificate and immunization record to registration.

Mr. Duncan took a few minutes to sit down with me this afternoon and share some of his reflections from yesterday's 3rd annual Leadership Day. To hear the humility and gratitude in his voice was touching. Here's a brief summary of what he shared with me:

The turn-out from parents and community members was overwhelming. In case you didn't turn around, there was standing room only in the back of the auditorium. To take time on a Tuesday afternoon is difficult for many families and working individuals. This alone was a huge sign of support.

Synergy. It's real. Every student at Cherry Creek played a part in Leadership Day, whether on stage or in the days and weeks leading up to it. The air has been full of energy, excitement, and cooperation. All of the teachers were on board and managed all of the rehearsal time and schedule changes without complaint. Not a single bad attitude in the building.

Hopefully every student, parent, and guest could see that at Cherry Creek, we value every single student as an important person who has inherent talent and worth. The feedback from parents was overwhelming and personal. It is clear that the Leader In Me program in fact has made a difference in the lives of our students, and that makes all of this worth it.

Thank you again to all who came, contributed, and shared in our successes.

The excitement is palpable! The choir has been rehearsing, the emcees have their note cards written, and the greeters are already at their posts (ok, not really). We can't wait for all of you to see what our students have prepared. It starts at 1:00 sharp tomorrow - you won't want to miss this!